WASHINGTON (AP) – With his term expiring, President Donald Trump said goodbye to Washington on Wednesday, but he also hinted at a comeback despite a legacy of chaos, turmoil and bitter divisions in the country he led by four years.
“So, just goodbye. We love you, ”Trump told supporters at Andrews Joint Base in Maryland, where he walked a red carpet and boarded Air Force One to go to Florida. “We will be back somehow.”
Trump left office as the only president who has ever been impeached twice, and with millions more unemployed than when he was inaugurated and 400,000 killed by the coronavirus. Under his supervision, Republicans lost the presidency and the two chambers of Congress. He will be remembered forever for inciting an uprising, two weeks before Democrat Joe Biden moved to the White House on Capitol Hill that left five dead, including a Capitol police officer, and horrified the nation. It was on the day of Trump’s inauguration, January 20, 2017, that he painted a terrible picture of “American carnage”.
The first president in modern history to boycott his successor’s inauguration, Trump is still concerned about his loss and claims that the election won by Biden was stolen from him. Republican officials in several critical states, members of their own administration and a wide range of judges, including those nominated by Trump, rejected these arguments.
Trump refused to participate in any of the symbolic torch-passing traditions surrounding the peaceful transition of power, including Joe and Jill Biden’s invitation to the White House for a knowledge visit.
He followed at least one tradition: the White House said Trump left a note for Biden. A Trump spokesman, Judd Deere, declined to say what Trump wrote or to characterize the sentiment in the note, citing privacy for communication between presidents.
Members of Trump’s family gathered for the farewell at the military base along with those loyal to the president, who shouted “We love you!” “Thanks, Trump” and “USA” Four Army cannons fired a 21-shot salute.
Speaking without taking notes, Trump said his presidency lasted “an incredible four years”. He told the crowd that he and First Lady Melania Trump loved them and praised their family for their hard work, saying that they could have chosen an easier life.
“It has been something very special. We have achieved a lot, ”said Trump, citing the installation of conservative judges, the creation of the space force, the development of coronavirus vaccines and the management of a robust pre-pandemic economy. “I hope they don’t raise their taxes, but if they do, I warned them,” he said of the new Biden government.
He acknowledged that it was not a “regular administration” and told his supporters that he would come back somehow. He said the Trump campaign worked: “We left everything in the field,” he said.
Not to mention Biden’s name, Trump wished the new government luck and success, which he said would be easier because he had laid “a foundation”.
“I will always fight for you,” he said to the crowd. “I will be watching. I will be listening. ”
Before arriving at the airport, Trump told reporters on the south lawn of the White House that being president was the honor of his life.
“We love the American people and, again, it has been something very special,” he said to the Marine One helicopter. “And I just want to say goodbye, but I hope it’s not a long-term goodbye. We’ll see each other again. “
If the schedule holds, when Biden takes office, Trump will have landed at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. He will face an uncertain future.
Aides asked Trump to spend his last days in office trying to save his legacy, highlighting his government’s achievements – tax cuts, reduction of federal regulations, normalization of relations in the Middle East. But Trump largely declined, making a single trip to the Texas border and releasing a video in which he promised his supporters that “the movement we started is just beginning”. In his final hours, Trump has forgiven more than 140 people, including his former strategist, rap artists, former members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.
Trump will retire to Florida with a small group of former White House advisers as he traces a political future that looks very different now than just two weeks ago.
Prior to the Capitol revolt on January 6, Trump was expected to remain the de facto leader of his party, wielding enormous power while serving as a king maker and pondering a presidential race in 2024. But now he seems more powerless than who never – avoided by so many in his party, twice accused of impeachment, denied the Twitter megaphone he intended to use as a weapon and even facing the prospect that if he is convicted in his Senate trial, he could be prevented from seeking a second term.
For now, Trump remains angry and ashamed, consumed by anger and hurt. He spent the week after the election plunging deeper and deeper into a world of conspiracy, and those who spoke to him say he still believes he won in November. He attacked Republicans for alleged disloyalty and threatened, both in public and in private, to spend the next few years defending primary challenges against those he feels had betrayed him.
Some expect him to turn completely against the Republican Party, perhaps flirting with a dispute as a candidate for a third party as an act of revenge.
Despite all the chaos and drama and bending the world to his will, Trump ended his term as he started: largely alone. The Republican Party he co-opted finally seemed to have had enough after Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol, in search of lawmakers who refused to agree with Trump’s unconstitutional efforts to overturn the results of a democratic election.
White House cleaning crews worked overnight on Wednesday and were still working as the sun rose to clean the building and get it ready for its new occupants. Most of the walls were reduced to hooks that previously contained photos, and the offices were devoid of the clutter and knick-knacks that gave them life.
Although Trump has left the White House, he maintains his control over the Republican base, with the support of millions of loyal voters, along with allies who still run the Republican National Committee and many state party organizations.
The city he leaves will not miss you. Trump rarely left the White House boundaries, except to visit his own hotel. He and his wife never had dinner at any other local restaurant and never ventured out to shop at their stores or visit the locals. When he left, it was almost always for one of his properties: his golf course in Virginia, his golf course in New Jersey, his private club and the nearby golf course in Palm Beach, Florida.
The city widely supported Biden, with 93% of the vote. Trump received just 5.4% of the vote – or less than 18,600 ballots – not enough to fill the Washington Capitals hockey arena.
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Associated Press editor Darlene Superville of Washington contributed to this report.